Fun for a Friday

It’s Friday. I’m bloody tired. Let’s have some fun!

In the past week or so, I have seen two different versions of a 30-song meme. The first came from kspin who had a different thing that each song title said about you. The second came from KayO and it’s like a bit o’trivia. (And I think it’s clear how much we love trivia at This D*mn House!) Both involve taking your iPod (or other MP3 player of your choice) and putting it on shuffle.

You can also use party shuffle from iTunes on your laptop – that’s what generated the second part of my list. In both cases, it chooses the songs for you to use. All you have to do is keep track. That’s easier said than done, too.

Here is how KayO’s version works:

Step 1: Put your iPod player on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 30 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song. (I've already done this. Here's where YOU come in!)
Step 3: Leave me a comment, guessing what song and artist the lines come from. Do as many as you can.
Step 4: I’ll bold the songs as my astute readers guess correctly. (Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!)

If you hit a song without lyrics, then just go onto the next one. I hit more than one. And, I also hit a surprising string of songs that the first line WAS the song title. That’s no fair. So, I ingeniously decided to just put (TITLE) where that occurs and the next lyrics to follow. For at least a few of these songs, I know there are probably several versions. Guess the one you think you’d be likely to find on MY iPod.

Then, when we’re done (I’ll likely wait ‘til next week), I’ll post the answers along with what the song says about me from the kspin meme. In order for it to be fun though, you have to play! C’mon, take some guesses. It's Friday; you really DON'T want to work anyway. AND NO CHEATING! You don’t win anything – ‘cept braggin’ rights for knowin’ my iPod really well!

Here we go. Name that tune and its artist.

1. Stay with it baby – and that’s all I ask of you.
2. Eddie waited ‘til he finished high school.
3. It's been a (TITLE) and there’s reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last.
4. (TITLE), north and south and east and west of your life.
5. How does it feel to treat me like you do?
6. (TITLE), the thrill has gone away.
7. She is benediction, she is addicted to he.
8. You don’t have to be beautiful to turn me on.
9. (TITLE) falling on my head like a memory, falling on my head like a new emotion.
10. Don’t you (TITLE)? Don’t you need her badly?
11. Just a castaway, island lost at sea-o.
12. For fear the hearts of men are failing, for these are latter days we know.
13. Little Rita and her sister Bette met some mook who drove a purple Chevy.
14. Miracle of miracles, look what the night dragged in.
15. On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair.
16. I am the son and the heir of a shyness that was criminally vulgar.
17. I don’t know why I love you like I do, all the changes you put me through.
18. And if you listen now, you might hear a new sound coming in as an old one disappears.
19. Go ahead and waste your days with thinking when you fall everyone stands.
20. Does she walk, does she talk, does she come complete?
21. Watch out – you might get what you’re after.
22. Watch the sun rise, say your goodbyes, off we go.
23. When the world is a monster, bad to swallow you whole.
24. I can’t imagine so many monkeys comin’ in the daily mail.
25. It’s late in the evening. She’s wondering what clothes to wear.
26. (TITLE) tell me where have you been.
27. Some things you never get used to even though you’re feeling like another man.
28. You’ve got a (TITLE); I want a ticket to anywhere.
29. A bottle of white. A bottle of red. Perhaps a bottle of rose instead.
30. I am Jeremiah Dixon, I am a Geordie boy.

Flooded Friday

It doesn't look quite this bad today, but it's not far off -- at least bad enough to keep me sitting still for a little while. And I guess I'd better get used to it. Seems like we're in for rain ALL weekend. Lovely.

I guess I shouldn't complain too much. I could always be in Galveston.

The thunder that awakened me about 4:45 brought heavy rain with it shortly thereafter. It POURED for about an hour, flooding my roadway and from what the news is showing, several streets between here and work. So I'm in no particular hurry to head out even though it's stopped now.

Between the thunder, Ozzie demanding to be let up because of it, Toby being woke up by it, and then the mother, I never went back to sleep. So I'm going on less than five hours. Not a pretty scene. Five is about my limit to function coherently. And joy of joys, I've got a really full plate today.

It should be a fun day. Happy Friday!

Is It Friday the 13th?

It’s Friday, and ordinarily I would be bordering on ecstatic and wishing everyone “Happy Friday!” But it's starting out more like you'd expect a Friday the 13th to. Today it will be difficult not to just punch people instead. Just chalk it up to sleep deprivation. I think I’ve had 10 hours or so of sleep total since Tuesday, thanks to my household.

Can I just pack them up and ship them all to parts unknown? Just for a few days? (Everyone except Tigger. He can stay. He’s not on my list.)

Toby the Cat, being a male, being an unneutered male for a variety of reasons, has decided most nights this week it would be a great idea to yowl to see if a girl will come visit him. Logical and perfectly acceptable, if it weren’t 1 or 2 a.m. when this starts.

Then there’s Carole, my 65-year-old. To her credit, she regularly gets up and makes Toby shut up. But other nights, she’s worse than he ever dare be. Take last night. When Toby was quiet. That’s when life in a small house sucks because, unless you’re deaf, you hear everything. And I’m on the other side of the kitchen. When a cabinet or drawer is opened or closed, it sounds like someone is coming through the wall. It’s very annoying. Particularly when this occurs at 4:45 a.m. (She regularly does this kind of thing within 30 minutes of the alarm.)

Particularly when this occurs after I’ve only just gotten comfortable again from getting up with Ozzie. Ozzie, who awakened me at 4 by farting in my face. It was one of the most disgusting things ever to awake to that. Now while I appreciate that he woke me up, rather than waking to the alternative, and I appreciate that this was probably not intended, it was no less disgusting.

What was worse – and why he is on my list – is that he didn’t want to come back to bed after things were settled. He went in with Mom. Fine. I just shut my door and got back in bed. Five minutes later … he’s whining and butting the door. I get up and let him in. He won’t come to me to put him up on the bed and he proceeds to pace and pace, flopping momentarily in his own bed and on the floor. Clack. Clack. Clack. I hear his feet on the wood.

I am almost asleep – I still have half an hour before the alarm goes off – and Carole is at it again. Slam. Boom. Pop. Then, from her room, clack, clack, clack of a spoon against a bowl. About that time, it starts to pour outside.

I nestle against my pillow thinking this will drown out all of it and I can grab 30 more minutes. But no.

“Hey,” I hear my mother yell from down the hall. “It’s pouring.”

Gee thanks, ma. I’m so glad you told me as I could not hear the banging of the rain against the window right next to me and come to that conclusion on my own.

In the eternal words of Moe, “Remind me to kill you later.”